This is an old, old photo. My baking and decorating skills have been much improved, but this is still great book/cake blog fodder, so indulge me!

​During 2010-12 I chaired a writing group in Towcester, Northants, and became really involved with all things books in the town library, where we would meet each month. World Book Night came along, and I baked for the event.

​Can you guess which books these are based on? Probably not, haha, they're not very well done with hindsight, but hey, it was a lot of fun. Answers below this photo, if you're interested....

So, I may not have been so prolific in my own blog writing in the last year, but I've discovered some corkers I regularly check in on, and I'm here to share.

The Environment Agency has a great blog, for scientifically minded people and those who are not so - always hot on subjects affecting the UK's environment and beyond.

A new find: A Cranky Flier. Brett, the blogger, writes regular posts sharing his three favourite links to travel news on the web - among other great content.

A dear friend and past colleague of mine writes a fab mental health blog. Take a look at WYSE THOUGHTS, and say hi to Paul.

Gray (with an 'a') Matter has some great stories, always something interesting to read and learn here. A recent favourite of mine was the post on beautiful metro stations you can find across the planet.

Huffington Post has a Good News blog - brings warm feelings from around the world.

After a long silence, I've turned my hand back to writing a little this month, and I've landed an article in Harboured magazine! It's a new magazine in Bristol (where I'm living), and I'm pretty excited about it.

Not only am I back writing seriously again, I've posted on my blog for the first time in seven months because of it, and, the best bit is the article is about my baking business, 280 Bakes.

This weekend sees the opening of a dream of mine... my own (mini) bakery!!!

Every 3rd Sunday of the month I will be selling home baked cakes from my kitchen. The baking starts this weekend and I can't wait!

I've got a full Christmas themed menu (check out #bakemenu on Twitter) from iced Christmas cake to Brownie Santa Hats, so if you're in the Bristol area this weekend, be sure to stop by! The first 25 customers will receive a gift, and of course, there will be tasters!

280 Bakes280 Broadlands DriveBristolBS11 0PW

Join me 4-5pm every third Sunday (opens 20th December) and find what you want for tea!

My sister's a cleaver old stick. She's the showstopping baker in our family. Mum is technical (having trained in food) and I'm firmly in the signature bake, a bit more experimental. We threw my dad a surprise retirement party earlier this year and my sister baked this bang on theme treasure. Dad was a pilot.

The cake was a tripe sponge layered delight covered in chocolate icing and shortbread plane cookies. Well done sis!

Before you ask, the marzipan man was a throwback to my wedding party in February. It's a model of dad, helping to give me away. I still have to post a picture of that cake - it was epic!

No, there's no elephant seal meat inside these, you'll be glad to hear. I think they're hideous animals, violent, selfish creatures, and ugly at that - just like this pie!

I had some shortcrust pastry to use up from my sweet potato pie baked for Halloween, so I lined four muffin tins with the leftovers. Then I finely sliced ham, dropped it into the bottom of the pie case, and covered it with scrambled egg mixture. They took about 30 minutes to bake at 180 degrees, and created some fantastically uneven (ugly!) elephant seal like pies. They tasted amazing, but they're not something I'd make for company!

I don't have any kids (yet), so I can't really trick or treat, but I'm a big fan of Halloween all the same. Here's how you Halloween with no one under 20 years old...

​After all the lead up, here's how my Halloween went down. Like a bat out of hell, if raced past, even with a bed time of 1.30am! We had soooo many trick or treaters - love it - the food was a success, and everyone got in the spirit/booze. Check it out!

Feeding Frenzy

On-Theme Outfits

Haunting Decor

I made 'dragon's blood' cocktail (sangria, essentially) and non-alcoholic bat's piss (a jug of lemonade) for the t-totals. 'Wink Murder' made an appearance once the food had been devoured. Halloween themed tunes were playing all night - just google 'devil' songs!

As you know, I love trying new things in the kitchen, but I won't be making any of these this Halloween. I have a few top secret tricks up my sleeve.

I won't be making Werewolf cupcakes as there will be plenty of cake at my house. Standard. Monster Eye cookies - doesn't really work with my aversion to eyes!The cheeseball looks like it has disaster written all over it, however great it may be as a centre piece. Doughnuts are not really in my favourite foods, so I'll give those giant bugs a miss. Devil's Eggs - see Monster Eye cookies - ick!The olive creepy crawlies were a possibility but El Husbandio doesn't like olives, so I can find something we both like. Croissants - don't go there. Mine are shortcrust pastry. Deal with it!

There's nothing to stop you making these though - go for it! They all look awesome and very tasty. Good luck and send me some photos on my Twitter!

I was brought up in a church-going Christian household, and I don't like the taste of pumpkin. We never had any form of Halloween celebrations, other than the odd bit of on-theme 'art' we did at school. We didn't give sweets to kids in the neighbourhood (one year got egged because of it!), and I was petrified of horror movies into my early teens. My mum even used to take us out to a friend's house on Halloween to avoid the trick or treaters. It goes without saying we never traipsed the streets dressed up, looking for a sugar high from familiar doorsteps. I remember thinking I was missing out, and as the years passed, the excuse that the event was for kids kind of stuck.

Halloween just didn't happen in our house.

Fast forward 20-30 years, and I am planning to wrap the house in Halloween gear ready to bring in the 31st October. I'm planning gross looking food (e.g. 'mummy' croissants, 'pumpkin' fruits - you'll see!) for a little ghoulish cocktail get together, I'm entering Halloween themed writing competitions, and I'm trying to work out when I'll get the time to pumpkin carve. In my previous Northamptonshire life I enjoyed the annual zumba 'spooktacular', really getting into the spirit of the thing.

After a hesitant and discouraging start, why do I now love Halloween so much?

Firstly, I don't need much of an excuse to get into fancy dress. And, I plan, when I have kids, to make Saturdays 'fancy dress day'. They will be (forcibly?!) dressed in outfits from Snow White to the superheroes while we carry on our way through regular Saturday activities. We'll brighten up our local grocery shop! Complex and well-thought through or eBay specials and simple hints - love those costumes. I can't wait to take my kids trick or treating!

Halloween is a great time to try something different. I mentioned I'm baking goods with a spooky taste, making me attempt new things in the kitchen. Same goes for cocktails. If it wasn't for Halloween, I'd never have discovered raspberry liquor. I'm also trying new ways to decorate our home. I love a bit of craft - there's more to Halloween decor than pumpkins!

Some of my favourite films are in the horror genre. I love a good (or bad!) zombie movie - the best being Dawn of the Dead - The Shining is in my top ten, I think, and I'm looking forward to the forthcoming Frankenstein movie, Victor Frankenstein.

Maybe Halloween's not just for kids. Maybe I've grown into Halloween - and I'm having a great time of it. Never liked apple bobbing though. Water, up nose, not good. I'll stick to toffee apples.